Study: Personalized Text Messages Boost STEM Student Persistence

In a randomized trial last summer, community college students in STEM fields who received personalized text message "nudges" to keep them on track stayed in school at a rate 10 percentage points higher than those who did not receive nudges. The study, a joint effort by Jobs for the Future (JFF) and Persistence Plus, followed about 2,000 students at four U.S. community colleges to gauge the impact of text message communications on college completion and student success.

"The initial results are very encouraging," said Maria Flynn, president and CEO of JFF, in a statement. "Through the use of personal, contextualized communications via text messages, students are more empowered to complete their degrees, colleges experience higher success rates, and STEM employers ultimately benefit with a more skilled workforce. We look forward to expanding impact and scale with Persistence Plus as we continue to partner in this work."

"We are tremendously excited that supporting our students with nudges is already making a measurable impact on student success rates, particularly in the STEM pathways that lead to family-supporting careers and are critical to our region's economic growth," said Marcia Ballinger, president of Lorain County Community College, in a statement. "These promising early results are prompting us to examine how to integrate nudging more deeply into our persistence and completion work."

Fore more information on the Nudging to STEM Success initiative, go to the JFF site.

About the Author

About the author: Rhea Kelly is executive editor for Campus Technology. She can be reached at rkelly@1105media.com.